The Matrix

“You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”

-Morpheus,  Matrix (1999)

Starring Keanu Reeves, the movie was phenomenal since it was first released.  Not only because of its amazing action performance, which presents Carry Ann Moss jumps to the air in slow motion and kicked the police officers who try to arrest her as the opening scene, the movie itself also has relation to a philosophical understanding.

In the allegory of the Cave, Plato engaged the idea of the experience of prisoners that have been kept away from civilization. They were seated faced to a big wall, and were only presented with shadows of people, trees, and animals. To them the shadows were reality because they had not been exposed to any other thing besides the shadow. However, one prisoner was freed, and he had the opportunity to explore other things, such as the brightness of the sun, the real animals, and was exposed to other humans. The meaning behind the story is that the prisoners in the cave symbolize how human being were exposed to things others offer them in life, but the freed prisoners symbolizes how human being perceive the true meaning of life by having a philosophy.

I can really see the connection between The Allegory of the Cave and the movie Matrix. Neo’s experience in the Matrix, who had double lives, as a computer hacker and an office worker resembles the prisoners who were kept in the cave. He just perceived the world as it is and just kept on doing what he’s doing without knowing that he’s a part of the Matrix. Orpheus resembles the guard who freed the prisoner, as he opens Neo’s way to find meaning of his life by choosing whether he wants to stay and continue to live without meaning and expectation, or he wants to explore an unimaginable truth and find who he truly is. 

When faced with the situation of choosing between taking the blue pill or the red pill, I personally need a lot of thinking to make up my mind. In the Plato’s allegory of the cave, of course the choice would be to see the real world instead of just living handcuffed on the cave just watching shadows on the wall. But on The Matrix, choosing between the regular life and this other digital life is more difficult. On one occasion, who would want to live in a situation where everything until know is generated by a bunch of machines? On the other hand, who are ready to accept the fact that people are controlled by machines and being the chosen one to battle it? Both of them are tough choices, and if I were given the opportunity, I would not want to live in such a way that people just lay down, plugged into some kind of machine and just basically “dream”. And because I have my prima facie value, I avoid being away from my family and friends and being taken to some ship where all I do is sit and think while eating vitamin oatmeal. Maybe it is easier for Neo because in the movie, there is no scene where he has family or loved ones, and most likely he pretty much hates his life. So by taking the red pill, Neo would be able to start over again and at last being excited and have goals. But for me, blue pill would be nice :)